Dangerous Highway Being Studied; Possible Improvements to Come

Four years ago, a man lost his son and two grandchildren in a crash on M-40 in front of the Tulip City Truck Stop. Afterward, he wondered if it was possible to do anything to improve the busy road’s safety.

He now has hope that just that will happen. And that hope comes in the form of the Macatawa Area Coordinating Council who has hired a consultant to conduct a study of a specific stretch of M-40. The study could lead to much needed safety improvements.

“We always felt all along that there were a lot of close calls (after that crash). We felt another (accident) was going to happen,” the father and grandfather said.

In the truck accident that took the life of his son and 13-year-old grandson and 4-year-old granddaughter, the Indiana truck driver whose semi collided with theirs on M-40 pleaded no contest to negligent homicide. He had just pulled his truck onto the highway from the truck stop when the crash occurred. A New York City-based Attorney said that the driver received two years probation and had to pay $31,500 in restitution.

The father and grandfather of the victims took his concerns for the road’s safety to the city of Holland’s Street Department who, in turn, asked the Michigan Department of Transportation to consider making improvements to the roadway. An MDOT investigation determined that adding a light or reducing speed limits on that stretch of road would increase accidents, not decrease them.

But now, a committee of representatives from the city, township, county and MDOT have taken a fresh look at M-40. Costing just over $50,000, they have hired a firm to figure out and present a detailed analysis of the highway.

A Westchester source says that it’s common in such studies to collect information on a number of related areas like traffic volumes, movements of that traffic, number of on and off ramps, driveways, etc.

The analysis of the popular stretch of road is hopefully going to lead to improvements that everyone in the area can be happy with – and safer because of.

Dangerous roadways that are ignored by policymakers cause a lot of damage yearly. Contact a NY Truck Accident Attorney today to see if you should receive compensation for damages or medical bills or if you want restitution for a life taken.